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Double trouble

When it comes to new and innovative foods, nothing has been more controversial than the idea of eating meat from cloned animals.

European Voice

10/3/12, 8:45 PM CET

Updated 4/12/14, 11:47 PM CET

An attempt by the European Commission to update 1997 rules on so-called ‘novel foods’ collapsed dramatically last year over the controversial issue. In an attempt to update the legislation to include those foods invented after 1997, the Commission also attempted to regulate meat from clones.

After an all-night negotiating session with member states and MEPs in March last year, the Commission was forced to withdraw the proposal. It will put forward two separate proposals on novel foods and cloning in the first half of 2013. It is hoped that with the cloning issue stripped away, the novel foods proposal will be passed quickly.

But the issue will need to be dealt with eventually. During the negotiations, member states were willing to require labelling for meat from the first generation of clones’ offspring. But they balked at MEPs’ insistence that such labelling be required of all descendents of cloned animals in perpetuity.

Sándor Fazekas, Hungary’s minister for rural development, said at the time this “would have required drawing a family tree for each slice of cheese or salami”.

The controversial cloning issue may not be settled for many years. But an update of the novel foods directive is urgently needed, particularly because it will cover food products containing nano-materials.

“We cannot stay forever with the 1997 rules,” said John Dalli, the European commissioner for health, after the talks collapsed.